This supposition so well reconciled his conduct to
the general opinion, that it met with universal assent;
and the outcry against his lenity soon began to take
another turn, and was changed into an invective against
his cruelty to the poor girl. Very grave and good
women exclaimed against men who begot children, and
then disowned them. Nor were there wanting some,
who, after the departure of Jenny, insinuated that
she was spirited away with a design too black to be
mentioned, and who gave frequent hints that a legal
inquiry ought to be made into the whole matter, and
that some people should be forced to produce the girl.
These calumnies might have probably produced ill consequences,
at the least might have occasioned some trouble, to
a person of a more doubtful and suspicious character
than Mr Allworthy was blessed with; but in his case
they had no such effect; and, being heartily despised
by him, they served only to afford an innocent amusement
to the good gossips of the neighbourhood.
But as we cannot possibly divine what complection
our reader may be of, and as it will be some time
before he will hear any more of Jenny, we think proper
to give him a very early intimation, that Mr Allworthy
was, and will hereafter appear to be, absolutely innocent
of any criminal intention whatever. He had indeed
committed no other than an error in politics, by tempering
justice with mercy, and by refusing to gratify the
good-natured disposition of the mob,[*] with an object
for their compassion to work on in the person of poor
Jenny, whom, in order to pity, they desired to have
seen sacrificed to ruin and infamy, by a shameful
correction in Bridewell.
[*]Whenever this word occurs in our writings,
it intends persons
without virtue or sense, in all stations;
and many of the highest
rank are often meant by it.
So far from complying with this their inclination,
by which all hopes of reformation would have been
abolished, and even the gate shut against her if her
own inclinations should ever hereafter lead her to
chuse the road of virtue, Mr Allworthy rather chose
to encourage the girl to return thither by the only
possible means; for too true I am afraid it is, that
many women have become abandoned, and have sunk to
the last degree of vice, by being unable to retrieve
the first slip. This will be, I am afraid, always
the case while they remain among their former acquaintance;
it was therefore wisely done by Mr Allworthy, to remove
Jenny to a place where she might enjoy the pleasure
of reputation, after having tasted the ill consequences
of losing it.
To this place therefore, wherever it was, we will
wish her a good journey, and for the present take
leave of her, and of the little foundling her child,
having matters of much higher importance to communicate
to the reader.
The hospitality of Allworthy; with a short sketch
of the characters of two brothers, a doctor and a
captain, who were entertained by that gentleman.
